How the fuck do you say this name, anyways? "Kay-noot?" said my friend. "nut" says my wife. I don't fucking know. I do know that KNUT played a riveting and sonically overbearing style of math-metal/hardcore. If you liked Botch (how could you not?), wanted a faster and more technical Isis or are in need of more Shoto-heavy mayhem, look no further. ....

The self titled EP 'Knut' is a very acidic listen. If metal/hardcore could eat through chest armour (Hicks, I'm looking in your direction) then this is the album for you. I would call this "noise laden". I don't care for the sound as much on this, as it sounds like a scratchy/muffled and early Converge.

The 'Challenger' album is much of the same with caustic metallic screaming with a heavy emphasis on hardcore. Still, songs like "Ice Will", "Repressed" and my favourite track "Bite the Bullet" are all fantastic.

'Terraformer' is the album that boasted the production the band needed and comes across more like Mare and Botch on speed. This full length captures what I thought KNUT was capable of and then some. The band expertly mixes their Botch influence with their Neurosis/Isis love and create a myriad of songs, structures and sounds. They confidently shy away from conventional structures, for the most part, and delve into mostly instrumental romps followed by long, expansive meanderings with way more vocals than I would have expected after hearing so little on the amazing shorter/faster songs, such as "Seattle" with a Cave In/Mutoid Man-esque thrash riff, "Genoa" blasts through with sludgy, Tigershark-esque riffing and "Fallujah" has a pummeling beginning that turns into a palm-mute fan's dream before exploding with the only vocals in the entire song - a howling scream, at 1:24. They do have some more basic songs, such as "Wyriwys" which could be mistaken for Swarm Of The Lotus and Iscariote pretty much any day of the week, as well as "Kyoto" which barrels through the speakers like an expertly trained army attacking, screaming, hacking and downright disemboweling the listener's ears before a lulling outro. Oh, and I love the cover art.

It's no wonder that 'Wonder', the band's final studio output and subsequent full length, isn't far off from 'Terraformer' territory. It has that massive, mathy, sludgy thrash/hardcore/metal feel to it but the songs don't grab me the way the aforementioned LP do. I'm nitpicking though, because this is a great album as well, with the standout tracks being "Suckers", "Calamity", "Fast Forward Bastard" and "Lemmings".

Grab the partial discography I've posted, as I need to complete my collection, as well.

________________________________________

DISCOGRAPHYClick )==>here<==( to download the about half of the band's complete discography in mp3 form.

Past Week

Search the tons of OMSB interviews and reviews here!

OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain

Link to www.zegemabeachrecords.com/omsb-talentSubmit your band's material if you think it jives with this blog and I'll post it on the record label site for listeners to preview. Just send an email with "OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain" as the title and a link to your music and I will do the rest.

Contact!

If you are a band/record label and think your stuff would jive with this blog and want me to listen to it / post it, email me at zegemabeachrecords@gmail.com with "openmindsaturatedbrain" as the subject title . If any links you would like are dead, post on that page and I will upload the link again.